Beak Speak

A new report released by BirdLife Australia today reveals another of Australia's endangered birds, Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo, is sliding towards extinction as national environment laws continue to fail to protect the plants and animals that need them most.

For the eighth consecutive year, BirdLife Australia has released the results of its Great Cocky Count report, documenting the decline of one of Australia's most iconic birds, where around Perth, numbers of Carnaby's continue to fall dramatically. It’s estimated this population has nearly halved since 2010.

"The decline continues unabated despite ringing the alarm bells on this impending crisis for the best part of a decade,” said Adam Peck, BirdLife Australia’s Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo Project Coordinator.

“It's disappointing because we know exactly what the problem is, and we know how to fix it, but finding the political will has proved more difficult than it should be.”
"The Western Australian Government continues to allow the logging of critical habitat, leaving these birds to effectively starve," he continued.

"It's what we're seeing right across the board — important habitat continues to be destroyed because of poor government regulation and oversight," she said.

"Australians expect our Federal Government to play an active role in protecting the places and birds we love. It is just appalling that on Threatened Species Day, another species steps closer towards extinction."

In Australia, 133 birds are currently federally listed as threatened, with another 22 already extinct.

"It's time for the Australian Government to step up and intervene for the protection of threatened species like the Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo,” Margaret continued. "We know they have the power to do so, but it’s clear that buck-passing and political game-playing are getting in the way of doing the right thing for threatened species."

“The system is broken. We clearly need stronger national environment laws, or else we risk consigning more species like Carnaby's to the history books."